Chapter 37
Xia Anran and Ji Minghui stayed in the capital for one night. The next morning, she made her second visit to the “palace,” going to see the top leader again.
Ji Minghui got up at seven o’clock sharp to exercise. When he came back from his run, he saw Xia Anran coming down the stairs, grabbing a piece of bread to eat. Yu Xue and Wu Sicheng were with her. Ji Minghui knew they had been specially assigned to protect her. He said hello and went upstairs to take a shower. Xia Anran, with dark circles under her eyes, was nibbling at her bread. She had only slept a few hours last night, having been up studying the app’s newly developed functions.
She had discovered that every time the app upgraded, some special function would pop up in some obscure corner, and each one was hidden as if it were afraid she would find it. The “leave request” function she had posted yesterday was something she had stumbled upon on the way back from the Academy of Sciences. It could be considered another channel of communication with the interstellar era.
Seeing Ji Minghui up early and exercising, Xia Anran propped her chin on her hand, took a bite of bread, and said in a slightly lecherous tone, “I didn’t realize Ji Minghui had such a good body.”
Ji Minghui’s usual attire was that of a standard artistic youth: a white shirt, jeans, and a gray jacket like his teacher’s. In just the past few days, Xia Anran had already seen the master and apprentice’s daily outfits looking like they were copy-pasted. Standing there, they looked every bit the part of artsy intellectuals.
So, when she saw him in a white t-shirt and sweatpants, her eyes lit up. As expected, the youthful, athletic style was her favorite. Especially with the layers of jackets gone, wearing only a t-shirt, she finally noticed that he had a typical inverted triangle figure, with a narrow waist and long legs. The fabric, slightly damp with sweat, even hinted at the shape of his abs. By the looks of it, he was well-trained.
Hearing her roguish tone, Yu Xue couldn’t help but say, “Mind your image a little.”
“There are no outsiders here,” Xia Anran said, finishing her bread in a few bites. She thought to herself that her palate had really been spoiled by Master Guo’s cooking lately. This brand of chocolate bread, which used to be her favorite, now tasted like chewing wax.
“By the way, Sister Yu, Brother Cheng, is everyone on your team in great shape? I feel like Brother Cheng’s physique is even better than Ji Minghui’s,” she asked quietly while drinking her juice.
Ji Minghui, who was in the shower, suddenly sneezed. He turned up the water temperature, puzzled. Could he be catching a cold from sweating too much during his run?
Yu Xue was a standard tall beauty, with not an ounce of fat on her legs or waist. Her muscle definition was beautiful, and her skin was a healthy tan. When they had first met, Xia Anran had even asked her for her fitness routine, hoping to steal some tips. But the moment she heard about things like climbing down a fifty-meter building and thirty-kilometer weighted runs, she had given up immediately. Wu Sicheng’s physique was also top-notch. Compared to Ji Minghui, his muscles were much more robust and powerful.
Yu Xue poked her on the head. “You’re not thinking of falling in love, are you? A young girl’s spring fancy?”
“Stop, stop! Don’t be so insulting. Who wants to fall in love? I’m building my career! I’m a career woman of the new era!”
“Then why were you just staring at Teacher Ji like a hooligan?”
Xia Anran said righteously, “Appreciating handsome men is also part of a career woman’s life!”
Yu Xue: “…”
Wu Sicheng, on the side, gave a simple-minded laugh. “The guys on our team, if nothing else, all have top-notch physiques. If you’re interested, I can find some pictures for you to look at later.”
Xia Anran: “Thank you, Brother Cheng! I’d love to see them, the more the better!”
Yu Xue: “…” I can’t stand these two.
Xia Anran said with a grin, “Looking at handsome men and beautiful women also puts you in a good mood. Everyone on our team is very good-looking. As the person in charge, I’m very satisfied!”
…
When Ji Minghui came down after washing up, he found only Wu Sicheng downstairs. He handed him a sandwich he had made. “Have Anran and Sister Yu already gone to see the leaders?”
Wu Sicheng nodded and took the sandwich, carefully examining what was inside. Ji Minghui had made four, originally intending one for each of them. Now, only he and Wu Sicheng were left to finish them.
“Why didn’t you go with them, Brother Cheng?” he asked casually. Yu Xue and Wu Sicheng never left Xia Anran’s side.
“Anran asked me to stay,” Wu Sicheng said. He picked the fried chicken cutlet out of the sandwich, then re-wrapped it and handed it to Ji Minghui.
Ji Minghui: “?”
Wu Sicheng: “Not conducive to maintaining your physique.”
Ji Minghui nodded. Just as he was about to say thank you, he saw Wu Sicheng pick up the other, unaltered sandwich and bite off half of it in two mouthfuls.
Ji Minghui: “???”
Wu Sicheng finished the sandwich in a few more bites, then picked up another. Seeing Ji Minghui’s stunned expression, he added two more words: “Not conducive to your physique.”
Xia Anran had just specifically mentioned that Ji Minghui’s physique needed more work. For the sake of her physical and mental well-being, he felt it was his duty to supervise Ji Minghui’s training.
And so, for some inexplicable reason, Ji Minghui was dragged off to do thirty sets of pull-ups and nearly died on the bar.
When Xia Anran returned, she was greeted by the sight of Ji Minghui, drenched in sweat, doing push-ups, with Wu Sicheng standing beside him like a drill sergeant, stopwatch in hand.
“Twenty seconds left! Thirty more to go! Faster, move it!”
She had only been gone for a few hours. How had the house turned into a gym?
Completely unaware that her one-off comment had subjected the unfortunate Ji Minghui to a whole morning of torture, she went up and asked what they were doing.
In the end, Ji Minghui failed to meet the demonic Coach Wu’s requirements. He sat on the ground, panting heavily, his hair soaked as if he had just been pulled out of the water.
“It’s nothing,” he gasped. “Brother Cheng is teaching me how to work out.”
This looks more like training to death. Does Ji Minghui have some kind of self-torturing tendency?
Wu Sicheng said with a serious face, “Everyone on our team must have a strong physique. I will be in charge of this aspect from now on.”
A question mark appeared above Xia Anran’s head. When did this requirement appear? How come I didn’t know?
“Then it seems I’m a perfect fit for this place,” a magnetic voice came from behind her. She stepped to the side. Ren Yi was standing behind her, looking over with interest.
“Senior Colonel Ren?” Wu Sicheng was a little surprised.
Xia Anran’s gaze shifted between the two. “You know each other?” She then realized it herself. They were both from the military and both top-tier; it wasn’t strange that they knew each other. Yu Xue, however, didn’t seem to know him.
As expected, Ren Yi also knew Wu Sicheng. The two embraced, and Ren Yi smiled, clapping him on the shoulder. “When I heard there were two comrades from the Cheetah Commando Team here, I guessed you might be one of them. After all, your training scores back then were in a league of their own.”
Wu Sicheng scratched his head, embarrassed. “But I still didn’t make it into the anti-drug task force.”
“I’ll repeat it one last time. That year, our team had no openings and wasn’t recruiting. Stop harping on about it.”
After the two old friends had caught up, Xia Anran cleared her throat. “From today onwards, Ren Yi is a member of our Project Liuhe. Let’s all look after each other.”
Today, after she had reported the app’s special response to her contact with Ren Yi, the top leader had immediately decided to specially transfer him to Project Liuhe and had personally briefed him on the entire project.
After receiving the transfer order, Ren Yi had originally thought of negotiating to join after his current anti-drug case was closed and the few escaped criminals were brought to justice. But after listening to the top leader’s earnest words, he had resolutely accepted the order.
Coming out from the meeting with the top leader, Xia Anran was surprised at how quickly Ren Yi had changed his mind. After all, when he had first arrived, his determined expression had practically screamed that he was planning to defy the soldier’s sacred duty to obey orders and refuse this transfer.
“So our schedule includes training? Excellent. I’ll join in starting tomorrow,” Ren Yi said.
Ji Minghui, still sitting on the ground, unable to get up, looked at his two particularly well-built military colleagues and felt his vision go dark. This is bullying, isn’t it? They’re bullying me!
…
That afternoon, Xia Anran boarded the plane back to Yanshan Village with her newly minted teammate. They arrived home on time in the evening.
Master Guo, seeing that they had brought back another energetic young man, happily cooked a large table of dishes to welcome the new member. Everyone was cheerful, except for Ji Minghui, who was so listless he could barely lift his chopsticks.
The next day at nine o’clock, having skipped a day, Xia Anran started her stream on time. The moment it started, she greeted the camera with a smile, explaining that she had had an urgent matter yesterday and hadn’t been able to broadcast.
Ji Minghui watched the comments for a while and noticed that the audience was very curious about her attire today. He adjusted the camera to focus on her clothes.
“My clothes today? They are the traditional attire of an ethnic minority from my hometown region. It’s the first time I’ve worn them. I’ve seen the elders in the village wear them before. They’re very beautiful!”
She pointed to the silver collar around her neck. “This is all made of silver, a precious metal. My mother told me that many people used to make these accessories themselves. Very skillful, right?”
Director Li Sheng, who was watching the stream, turned to the senior ancient Earth history expert beside him. “What does ‘ethnic minority’ mean?”
The expert quickly searched his photon-computer’s database and then shook his head regretfully. “I’m sorry, Director. The concept of ‘ethnic minority’ does not appear in our historical records.”
Director Li rubbed his hair, which had been starting to thin lately, and opened the comments.
[United Star System Science Academy Director Li Sheng]: May I ask, Miss Anran, what does ‘ethnic minority’ refer to?
“Our Hua nation is a multi-ethnic country. The majority of the population is the Hua ethnicity. The other ethnic groups with smaller populations are called ethnic minorities. Although we have more than fifty ethnic groups, and the clothing, food, and customs of each are different, we all live on the land of the Hua nation and are like brothers and sisters of one family.”
The viewers from the Beastman race, the United Star System, and the Interstellar Empire, who had been engaged in their usual chaotic flame war in the comments, all had a series of question marks appear above their heads.
[Impossible! Absolutely impossible!]
[The three interstellar races can’t even coexist. How can more than fifty be possible!]
[It’s a little hard to imagine… more than fifty ethnic groups living together…]
[Anran must be joking with us, right?]
Xia Anran, thinking of the current tripartite division of the interstellar era, also understood the viewers’ skepticism about the Hua nation having so many different ethnic groups living together. After all, even among the many unified countries on Earth, few had as many ethnicities as the Hua nation. Wait a minute, the United Star System, the Interstellar Empire, and the Beastman race were three different countries! Compared to their ethnic minorities, there was a big difference. They were not only different countries but also different races. It was only natural for them to be in opposition to each other. She was a little confused why the interstellar viewers were reacting so strongly to this.
“It’s like this. Although we have many ethnic groups, the government has made many efforts to promote national unity and insist on equality. There are also many support policies for ethnic minorities,” Xia Anran said, the words flowing out of her almost by rote, a benefit of her years of teacher training.
[Unity? Equality?]
[I tried to imagine these words appearing in the interstellar era… emmm, I can’t imagine it at all.]
[My assessment of the current interstellar situation is that not starting a galactic war is a success.]
[In that case, the Hua nation is so amazing! It must be a very inclusive country!]
[The thought of being united and friendly with the Beastman race and the Imperials is enough to make my mom jump up and hit me.]
…
Beastman Home Planet
“A multi-ethnic country? How is that possible!”
Jeqi scoffed. Their interstellar era had only three races, and they were constantly at each other’s throats. How could more than fifty ethnic groups coexist peacefully?
Xuan Mo glanced at him. “Your Majesty, they are all human, just different ethnicities, not different races.” It was completely different from their situation.
Jeqi was unconvinced. He said righteously, “Aren’t the United Star System and the Interstellar Empire also human? I don’t see them being thick as thieves.” Even within their own Beastman race, there was no shortage of open and secret strife between the various tribes.
Xuan Mo: “…” That does seem to have some logic to it.
“And that bunch from the Alpha System. Look, does anyone acknowledge them?” Jeqi tsked, a little angry at the thought of them.
The citizens of the Alpha System were all hybrids of the United Star System, the Interstellar Empire, and the Beastman race. Intermarriage between the three interstellar nations was strictly forbidden, so these people were not accepted by any side from birth and could only wander the stars. A dozen years ago, a man named Astaroth, a hybrid of the Beastman race and the Interstellar Empire, had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. His psychic power had reached the highest level in the entire galaxy, 3S. He had united the scattered hybrid races and seized the Alpha System from the Beastman race, establishing a power base for the hybrids.
Although the Alpha System and the Aler System differed by only one letter, their environments and resources were worlds apart. The Aler System was a barren wasteland, while the Alpha System was a resource-rich and habitable place. So, the Interstellar Empire and the United Star System held a neutral attitude towards this emerging power. Only Jeqi was furious. One, because Astaroth’s current base, the rich Alpha System, had been snatched from his hands. And two, because the Alpha System was in a period of external expansion and had already slowly encroached on a lot of the Beastman race’s territory. If it weren’t for Astaroth’s constant pressure, he wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to cooperate with Phileas to attack the United Star System.
“Astaroth…” Xuan Mo’s lips curled into a smile, an irrepressible eagerness in his eyes. “I really want to test my strength against him on the battlefield. 3S, heh.”
“I’ve never seen anyone as cunning as him. Even that black-hearted guy from the Interstellar Empire doesn’t have as many schemes as him,” Jeqi said through gritted teeth.
Astaroth and Phileas had been on his little list for a long time. Astaroth, in particular, had been at the top of his “people to kill” list for years.
And the man who had long been second on his assassination list, His Majesty the Emperor of the Interstellar Empire, Phileas, was also watching the livestream on time.
“Teacher, do you think the day will come when the interstellar era is completely unified?” Phileas asked suddenly, elegantly eating a peach he had fought so hard to get from Director Hukeni.
Hukeni was already heartbroken watching Phileas eat his precious few peaches. Hearing this unreliable question, he immediately snorted coldly. “Let’s not even talk about the fact that the most important livestream in the entire interstellar era has appeared in the United Star System. We can’t even defeat the Beastman race by force.” Go to sleep and dream on. Maintaining the tripartite balance is the best solution for now.
Phileas blinked. “I was just a little curious what it would be like if our three nations lived together. Would it be like the Hua nation?”
Hukeni didn’t speak. He thought to himself, If the United Star System were in the lead, there might be a chance. But if our Interstellar Empire were the main body, it would be absolutely impossible. He knew his emperor student all too well.
Sure enough, a moment later, Phileas continued to mutter to himself, “No, no, I really can’t do it.” He would definitely suppress the status of the United Star System and the Beastman race, gradually pushing them out of the core decision-making circle, and slowly make the people of the Interstellar Empire the noble citizens of the nation.
“In that case, the United Star System really are the descendants of the Hua nation. Imagining those consuls… they really might do something like that.”